It’s going to be a brisk evening at Fenway Park on Saturday night.
Game 1 of the American League Champion Series between the Astros and Red Sox will feature textbook October weather in Boston, as it’s expected to be around 50 degrees at the 8:09 p.m. ET first pitch, and could dip into the mid-40s as the game progresses.
But if you think the Red Sox’s starter for the series opener against Houston is concerned about the weather, think again. Prior to Game 1, manager Alex Cora explained why he’s confident in Chris Sale being able to pitch well in the less-than-ideal conditions.
“I think we got the right guy on the mound tonight,” Cora said, per WEEI’s Ryan Hannable. “He really doesn’t care about, like — he’ll go out there without sleeves because he promised somebody in Chicago that he will never wear sleeves, which I don’t understand.”
The Red Sox aren’t strangers to this kind of weather, as similar temperatures often linger into the start of the regular season. But while players aren’t thrilled with the cold in early spring, Cora doesn’t believe they’ll bat an eye now that a trip to the Fall Classic is on the line.
“So, yeah, it’s uncomfortable. It’s very uncomfortable,” Cora said. “But like I told you guys in February, you know, it’s amazing how baseball players complain of cold weather in April and May and when October comes, for some reason it really doesn’t matter. I think the fact that you’re four games away from going to a World Series blocks that out, and people really just concentrate on what they have to and they overcome the cold weather.”
